A 28-year-old Florida man fatally shot his estranged wife and their 5-year-old daughter this morning in his wife's Little Village home before turning the gun on himself, authorities and relatives said.

The gunman, who according to records lives in Miami, was critically injured but survived.

About 12:15 a.m., a relative called police after hearing shots from the floor below her in a home in the 2800 block of South Kildare Avenue. When police entered the basement unit, they found three people shot.

Two of them, a 28-year-old woman and her daughter, died on the scene, authorities said. Relatives identified them as Kelly Mariel Coca and Karla Valeria Eguez, respectively.

In the basement, she spotted her niece lying on the ground and heard a man groaning with pain, she recalled. Concerned for her safety, she called police and waited for them to arrive. Her fears were soon confirmed, she said, when a female police officer emerged from the basement crying.

According to a police report, all the victims were found on the floor, all suffering from gunshot wounds to the head. A semi-automatic pistol was lying on the floor and a second one was underneath the man, according to the report.

Relatives spent much of the early morning on Kildare, speaking with police and consoling each other in a front yard near the intersection with West 28th Street on the Southwest Side. As dawn approached, family members relocated to a nearby garage, home to the ice cream trucks of an uncle’s business.

Shivering outside the garage, tearful relatives spoke of the mutual adoration between a mother and her young daughter who had moved from Bolivia four years ago to start a new life in Chicago.

"My niece (Karla) wanted to be just like her mom," said Nohemi Cossio, a cousin of Kelly Coca. "She imitated everything her mother did."

A quick learner, Karla developed flawless English and was helping her mother pick up the language, relatives said. In a large extended family, her love for her relatives was clear to all, said her uncle Edgar Perez.

"Every time she saw me, she would be like, 'Tio!' and jump on me," said Perez, 22, using the Spanish word for uncle.

Coca, meanwhile, devoted herself to providing for her daughter. Working five days a week for a bathroom cleaning company, she also picked up a part-time job, relatives said.

Last year Coca enrolled her daughter in a pre-kindergarten program at a local Catholic school, and Karla was to start kindergarten at the school next week.

Relatives described the marriage between Coca and her husband, who had met as children and married in Bolivia, as tumultuous.

"They weren't talking much," said Boris Cossio, a 37-year-old a cousin of Coca, speaking in Spanish.

Coca's husband had sent her disturbing messages in the past, and she expressed serious concerns to family members that he might harm her, or himself, relatives said.

According to police, the man lives in Miami. Karla had spent a month with him this summer as part of a joint custody agreement. After spending the weekend in Miami, Coca brought the child back to Chicago on Sunday.

Unbeknownst to relatives, the man came to Chicago and overnight, witnesses told police they heard fighting involving the man, woman and the child. Then, a short time later, they heard gunshots, police said.

The man drove to the scene in a car rented from a local airport and receipts were found from an airline which showed he'd checked in the two guns properly while flying here, police said.

According to Cook County court records, the man was charged in January of 2011 with misdemeanor domestic battery causing bodily injury after attacking Coca. He put her in a leg lock and then dragged her from her room, according to the documents. He then allegedly began hitting her in the head with his fists, the records indicate. Then, after beating her he bit her right hand causing her fingers to bleed, records show.

He was ordered to post $10,000 bail and was given special conditions of bail. The case was dismissed nearly a month later on Feb. 2, according to records. At the time of the arrest, the man listed the same address in Miami he currently held, according to court records.

Karla Valeria Eguez, 5, and Kelly Mariel Coca, 28, were fatally shot in their Little Village apartment early this morning by the 28-year-old husband and father, authorities and relatives said. The shooter, who also shot himself, did not live with his wife or daughter. He survived the gunshot...